About the Off-Season: Patience is a Virtue

About the Off-Season: Patience is a Virtue

By Tim Kabel

October 23, 2023

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A young couple was getting married. All the guests were happily seated in the church. It was a beautiful day. The bride was beaming as she stood at the altar gazing lovingly at the groom. Everyone was perfectly dressed, not a hair was out of place. It was a beautiful day. The reverend came to the portion of the ceremony where he stated, “If anyone knows any reason why this couple should not be married, let them come forward now and speak, or forever hold their peace.”

Suddenly, a young woman carrying a baby stood up in the back of the church and began walking down the aisle. The bride shrieked and slapped the groom. The groom's mother fainted. The bride began sobbing and fled from the church, followed by her bridesmaids and her parents. Her father turned and shook his fist at the groom. The groomsmen huddled together, trying to find a way to fix the situation. Finally, the young woman and her child reached the front of the church.

The reverend sighed deeply and said to the young woman, “My dear, what brings you forward? What would you like to say?”

“I couldn't hear anything way in the back. I moved up so I could know what was going on."

The moral of this story is to not rush to judgment and jump to conclusions. It is better to be patient. That applies to all domains of life, It is perhaps most difficult for sports fans to do this. Yet, this is the approach we need to take.

Carlos Rodon did not have a good first season with the Yankees. That does not mean he will be a complete bust as a Yankee. He has five years left on his contract. He is known to be a fierce competitor and will undoubtedly want to redeem himself. We need to give him that chance. What other choice do we have?

Many Yankees’ fans are resigned to the belief that since the team will most likely be retaining Brian Cashman as general manager, the Yankees are destined to have another poor showing in 2024.

Fans and observers of the team are worried about next year. They're very critical of the team as it is presently constructed. I sometimes fall into that category myself. However, we need to remember that the team as it is presently constructed is most likely not the team that will take the field in April of 2024. If it is, there will be trouble in River City.

What we need to do is take a breath and see what happens. Will Brian Cashman definitely be back? It looks like he will be but, will he do things the exact same way, or will he change and adjust?

Will Aaron Boone return as manager? That is less certain than Cashman’s status but, it is likely that he will be back. Will he have the same coaching staff? Will he become more of a disciplinarian, as rumored?

Will the Yankees make other organizational changes, such as altering the analytics department? These are the first questions that need to be answered. Once it is determined who will be calling the shots and what the direction will be, we can then focus on the actual team on the field.

Will the Yankees alter their roster slightly or a great deal? The first thing they need to do is clean up the 40-man roster. Once they determine which players can be culled from the herd, they can then start making additions.

The Yankees need to carefully and thoroughly evaluate their own internal options to determine which young players should be part of the 2024 roster. Then, they can look to trades or free agency to finish building the team. They can explore major league free agents as well as international free agents to create the roster.

However, as noted earlier, this all starts with having a clear and consistent plan and direction. If there is confusion or misdirection, nothing good will happen. Hal Steinbrenner stated that he was not satisfied with this year. If that is truly the case, he needs to make sincere efforts to resolve the situation. If the Yankees have the same management team with the same approach and the same direction in 2024, there is no reason to expect a different outcome from this season. Either the people running the team on a day-to-day basis need to be changed or their approach does.

It is October 23rd. The World Series has not even started yet. Let's see what the Yankees do. At this point, it is too early to make snap judgments regarding the 2024 season. Let's wait and see what they do before we form an opinion regarding the team.

Patience is a virtue, have it if you can.

Always in a saint; rarely in a Yankees’ fan.